CRITICS' CHOICE: NEW CDS; Keeping It Modern, With Herbie Hancock and New Compositions

By NATE CHINEN

Published: December 25, 2006

Modernity is the mantra of the SFJAZZ Collective, an emissary of the San Francisco arts organization SFJAZZ. The group practices jazz repertory, but so far strictly post-bop, with compositions by its eight players stirred into the mix. Their two-disc release ''Live 2006: 3rd Annual Concert Tour'' is from a series of recent performances featuring the music of Herbie Hancock, jazz's modern man par excellence. It's available in a limited edition of 3,000 copies, and it's worth the price ($35 plus shipping and tax, from sfjazz.org).

Tellingly the first disc begins not with a piece by Mr. Hancock, but by Joshua Redman, the ensemble's tenor saxophonist and artistic director. The second disc opens with something by the alto saxophonist Miguel Zen?Interspersed elsewhere are contributions from the vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson (a ruminative ''Imminent Treasures''), the trumpeter Nicholas Payton (a headscratcher called ''Sudoku''), the trombonist Andre Hayward (''Serene Intentions,'' a romp), the pianist Renee Rosnes (''Mirror Image,'' a Hancockesque waltz), the bassist Matt Penman (a rock-influenced ''Frosted Evils'') and finally the drummer Eric Harland (''Triumph,'' as much of a flag-waver as you'd expect).

If that material had been collected as volume unto itself, it would do much to distinguish the SFJAZZ Collective as a serious-minded endeavor. As compiled here, alongside six mostly classic tunes by Mr. Hancock (in resourceful new arrangements by Gil Goldstein), the new work fares a bit unevenly. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It attests to the durability of Mr. Hancock's work and to the interpretive powers of Mr. Redman's coterie.

Make no mistake, those powers are considerable: the standard of musicianship here, in terms of solo firepower, could hardly be higher. And on simple pleasures like Mr. Hancock's ''And What If I Don't,'' and less simple ones like his ''Tell Me a Bedtime Story,'' the Collective sounds like a lithe and potent working band, albeit one underwritten by multiple grants.

If precedent can be trusted, Nonesuch will eventually issue a single-disc album culled from this one. By then the band will have probably kicked off its 2007 tour, with a focus on Thelonious Monk's music. Dave Douglas will have replaced Mr. Payton as trumpeter, and there will be another batch of original tunes. Not all of it will stick, but that's the risk inherent in the project. And that risk, as Mr. Redman might say, is partly the point. NATE CHINEN

Photos: Members of SFJAZZ Collective, above: Nicholas Payton (trumpet), Eric Harland (drums) and Joshua Redman. Left, the Atlanta rapper T.I. (Photographs by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times)(pg. E5)